Between The Cradle & The Cross // How God Became King - Read

Are you ready for a bold statement? Here goes: Our God, Jesus Christ, is the King of the World. And no—not in some spiritual, theoretical, or “far off future” sense. He is currently enthroned, ruling the world with grace and truth. That’s the truth. And that truth should change everything for us. Which brings us to a second bold statement: Most Christians don’t know or don’t live like this is the case. You see, when we realize the full weight of the fact that Jesus is King—how it happened and what it means—we will never see our faith the same way again.

Amen, amen. Why don't you high-five somebody next to you and grab a seat, man? Oh, man, I don't know how I'm supposed to preach after that. I got to be careful. For a second service, I might lose my voice going into the second service. Well, man, I'm so excited. You guys are here with us. Today. It's good to see everybody. Hey, who filled out a bracket this week. Does anybody fill out brackets, anybody online? Alright, a few people. You filled out a bracket, how's it doing? Doing our look, I gotta tell you, I started off real hot, like the first eight games, I was seven in one. And then everything fell apart. And it just completely fell apart, which is pretty much what happens every single year, I will say I'm proud of my alma mater. I'm a University of Akron guy. And they showed up, they showed up they took UCLA to the limit, I'm not gonna you know, they kind of got hosed by some calls by the refs. But you know, I'm a good Christian man, I can forgive those friends for the calls. But, man, but hopefully you guys, even if your brackets are busted are having a good weekend, I'm having a good weekend, we are in part three of this series, how God became king. And what we're doing in this series is we are studying the kingdom of God, what that means what it means when we talk about the Kingdom of God, what it means when we say that God is King, what it means for us as Christians, and even as non-Christians, that God is King. So that's where we're at what we're studying, I'm going to give you just real quick Cliff Notes of where we've been in case you've missed any of these weeks. And if you have, I want to encourage you, please go back online, check out our sermon archive, all of these weeks in the series is a seven-week series. And each week is going to build one on top of the other. So if you've missed any, you're definitely missing out. So make sure that you go back, check those two weeks out if you've missed him. Like I said, here's a real quick Cliff note of where we've been. So week one, we had a sermon entitled between the cradle and the cross, we talked about how so often Christianity and not just those of us inside of the faith, but even people who are non-believers, can focus so much on the cradle. And the cross, we can focus so much on Christmas and Easter these two huge, miraculous moments in Jesus's life. And we put such a huge emphasis on him, which is great, because those are pretty big, pivotal moments. But so often we miss the ministry of Jesus, we missed what he did during his three years of ministry on earth. And when we missed the ministry of Jesus, in favor of the miracles of Jesus, we missed Jesus. So we can't do that. We've got to look at what he did in his ministry, which namely, was an usher in this new reality called the kingdom of God. This brings us to where we were last week, we discussed the idea that the kingdom of God is not what so many of us think it's someplace that we go to one day that here on Earth is just near and we're just passing through anyway. Right? This isn't our home, one of these days, we're going to go to where we're supposed to be that's actually not how scripture refers to our time here on Earth, that our time here on Earth is a blessed time. And what we're supposed to do is not count down the days until we leave here. But we're supposed to be trying with all of our might, to bring heaven here. We're supposed to be following what Jesus said we should do and the Lord's Prayer. Let heaven come to earth through the way that we live the way that we treat other people and the way that we let Christ rule as king in our own life. So that's where we've been and that brings us up to today. Now I've done this a few different times whenever I've preached, I've let people know as a little disclaimer at the beginning. Sometimes I'm more of a preacher, and sometimes I'm more of a teacher. Today is going to be more on the teacher's side. We're going to be teaching today and it's actually funny. I changed up my sermon quite a bit from last night. We have a Saturday service, six o'clock if you know anyone who could make a Saturday service be sure that you're inviting them. It's a great time. We actually had a pretty packed house last night. It was awesome to see that. But it was funny. Chaparral is across the street they had a huge fight night event. And we've got kind of got a partnership with them. They let us use their parking lot. We let them use ours. Man if you drove by here last night it looked like revival was breaking out like two people are paying to park at church This is outrageous. Like it was crazy. But I did I changed things up a little bit since last night. I always joke with our Saturday service that they're like, you know how comedians before they get ready to do a big show. They'll kind of go to another comedian show and like test new material. They're like that's what you guys are Saturday service. You're the testing ground before Sunday morning. So today I'm really excited about this sermon. What I want to do I want us to start off with a quick question how many people if you have a significant other how many people can remember meeting their significant other's family for the first time? Hands up? Hands up, hands up online if you're online can you remember that? For some of it? I see the look of horror in some people's faces like I don't know forget, I

mean, it explained so much. I can actually remember this with my wife Jessica. I remember meeting her parents for the first time. And I also very detailed remember her meeting my family for the first time. If you've been at Cornerstone for a while, you may have heard this story before, but we've got so many new people, I had to share it again, my wife, whenever she came over for the first time, whenever we were dating, she came over my mom, my dad wasn't home yet. So she didn't have a chance to meet him. But my mom, and I'm kind of giving her a tour of the house, my room, like at this point because my brother and sister moved out, but like my room was the entire basement, which was awesome. Because there's like a fireplace in my room. I mean, this is awesome. So I'm like, Look, this is my room in this cool and this is this, this and this. And whenever she's looking at my room, she kind of walks over and notes right above the fireplace in the place of honor in my room, right right above the fireplace mantel. I'm a big Seinfeld fan. Big Seinfeld fan. There is an episode of Seinfeld where George Costanza takes a very, you know, risque picture of himself. He's This is Jason Alexander we're talking about too if you don't know what this is, he's laying down on like a velvet couch with like black socks up to here. boxer briefs on and he's like, just kind of posing on the couch. And I have that poster framed and mounted above my fireplace. Jessica's in my room, she's like, kind of looking around. This woman has never seen an episode of Seinfeld before. And she's never seen, my dad. kid you not. She looks at the picture is quiet for a moment and then says to me, she's not trying to be funny. She's dead serious, she says, is that your dad? Which please, please do yourself a favor. Do yourself a favor and look up that photo. I can't in good conscience. Put it up here on a Sunday morning. But on your own time, watch an episode of Seinfeld, you'll see it. I started dying. I'm like, no, no, that's not my dad. That's Seinfeld. You've completely made me read judge whether I should have this poster up or not. I'm taking it out immediately.

But as she got to meet my dad, and actually got to meet my mom, so much stuff came into the picture for like so many things about me because she'd already started to get to know me. So now she gets to know my family. And it gives her so much more depth into who I am. She sees that I'm in ministry, she means my parents realize they're both pastors and be like, Oh, okay, this makes sense. She sees some of my liberal tendencies, then starts talking to my dad and sees how he has some of the same kind of tendencies, right? sees my sense of humor that I would even have that kind of poster hanging up than meets my dad meets my mom was like, oh, yeah, this, this makes sense. Like all of me, made more sense when she got to know the rest of my family. The same is true for Jesus, whenever we get to know who Jesus is, whenever we say that Jesus is King, and Jesus is part of a triune, God, he's part of the Trinity. He's part of God, the Father, God, the Son, God, the Holy Spirit, whenever we say this, and we actually look into what that means that Jesus isn't just this guy who steps onto the pages of history in the book of Matthew, but that No, he is a co Eternal God who has been existing, and he has a relationship, suddenly, we start to see him with all the richness and the depth that we should see him with, and it changes everything. For us, we realize that Jesus is the culmination of a story that has been being told for 1000s and 1000s, of years before he even steps on the pages of history. And so what we're going to do today, we're shifting our focus the first two weeks of the series, we talked a lot about the kingdom, what the kingdom of God looks like today, we're focusing not on the kingdom, but on the king, we're going to be looking at who is king? What does it mean when we say that Jesus through God is now King. What we're going to be doing today is we're going to be studying two sections of Scripture today, both of them from the book of Luke, book Luke is a book that was written by a man who investigated the aspects of Jesus's life. He knew a lot of the firsthand eyewitnesses to Jesus's life. He recorded their testimonies and his own gospel, and he told the story of Jesus's life. So we're going to start today in Luke chapter four, Luke chapters one and two, record, Jesus's birth. Luke, chapter three records, the events of John the Baptist life, kind of like a forerunner to Jesus. He was Jesus's cousin. He was someone who God rose up to prepare the way for Jesus. And then Jesus enters into his full-time ministry. Here in Luke chapter four. We're going to skip ahead to verse 14. This is what Scripture tells us. Then Jesus returned to Galilee filled with the Holy Spirit's power. This is the very beginning of Jesus's Public Ministry reports about Him spread quickly through the whole region. He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. When he came to the village of Nazareth, His boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the scriptures. The scroll of Isaiah, the prophet was handed him this scroll, we actually have it in our Old Testament, if you have a Bible, the Old Testament book of Isaiah is what Jesus was reading from here, Jesus unrolled the scroll. And he found the place where this was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, for He has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor, he has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see that the oppressed will be set free, and at the time of the Lord's favor has come. I love how Luke really paints the picture here. And these next verses, oh, somebody says, Jesus rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant and sat down, all eyes in the synagogue, looked on him intently, then he began to speak to them. The Scripture you've just heard has been fulfilled this very day. This is an incredible moment that we read from scripture and an absolutely incredible moment that once we dive into this a little bit more, you're going to understand the full weight of what just happened. So we're going to be coming back to the Scripture a little later in the sermon. So we're going to put a pin in that for now. And we're coming back to it. So today, if you're taking sermon notes, our title is The Return of the King, The Return of the King. And what we're going to be looking at is how Jesus is King, and how Jesus is God. And he is a very specific king. And he has a very specific, God. Let's pray real quick. All right, father, God, thank You for Your word. Thank you for the truth of your word. Thank you. As we read from the book of Luke today, we can know that what we're reading isn't just a story. This isn't a made-up thing to help us feel good. But this is the truth. This is accurate history, written by someone who was persecuted for not willing not being willing to deny these things for saying, This is what I saw. This is what the people around me said they saw and I'm preserving this truth for future generations. Thank you for Luke and for what he did that nowhere today. Over 2000 years later, we can be reading about the events of Jesus's life because of his faithfulness, and his trust in you. God helped this word to be illuminated in our hearts this morning, that we would see it with your eyes and we would learn from it what we need to we love you We pray all this in your name. Amen. So like I said, this is an incredible moment that we just read from. And one thing I want to say as we read from the Bible, this is something that I mentioned a few weeks back, I just want to reiterate again, this is so important that we understand the Bible, as amazing as it is how wonderful are we can never just say it's a guidebook for us. Right? We can't say it's a guidebook. If you want to live a good life, that's what the Bible is for. It's so that you can live a good life. That's actually not what the Bible's about. We try to sum it up and all these little things I shared with you are the acronym that we try to say what the Bible is, right? B IB, le basic instructions before leaving earth. Amen. Right. Like that's, that's, but that's not, that's actually not what it is. Of course, there are instructions in it. Of course, in some areas, it does guide us and tell us what we need to do. But the overarching point of the Bible isn't for it to be a guidebook, or a list of instructions before leaving Earth. The Bible is a story. It's an overarching story. It is 66 separate books written over 1000s and 1000s of years by multiple different authors, but they're all telling one gigantic overarching story and that story is how God has now become king. That's the story. And with most stories, not just scripture, but with most stories, we will notice that there is a recurring theme. We see this in stories nowadays. Batman, right there's a new Batman movie just came out. There's a guy on Tik Tok, Who, me and Owen and Pastor Donnie, we've been laughing at these and a few other people on the staff this guy on Tik Tok, who's been making these like the little point of view videos like point of view that you're living in Gotham, and like, this is what it looks like whenever you're living in Gotham and you try to swim. And the dude's like, jumps into a pool. He dives into the pool. And as he dies, he looks over and sees a sign that says no diving. Batman shows up and he's like no diving and he starts beating the tar out of the dude, right?

There's another one. It's like a little old lady. She sits down at a bench and she accidentally drops like her butterscotch wrapper. Batman shows up and is like litterbug and starts like beating the tar out of her. Like it's just this, this recurring theme over and over. He's got like a bunch of these videos. And the whole point of it. The whole reason it's funny is if you've ever seen any Batman movie ever, except for the ones back in the six scenes which were like, cartoonish, that's Batman's Mo, like vengeance, like he's just gonna, he's gonna take out all of his pain and aggression on anybody who is around him. It's a recurring theme that pops up in literally, every single Batman movie, Batman TV show, Batman comic. The story has this recurring theme, and we actually see recurring themes in Scripture, even though it's 66 separate books, even though it's spread out over 1000s of years, there's a recurring theme that pops up time and time and time. Again, and this is the recurring theme. The recurring theme of Scripture is this. God wants to rule with people. He wants to rule with us. He wants the world to be subdued by people who are ruling it alongside God, God wants to rule with us, we rebel and he has to rescue us. It's the same thing over and over. And over and over the recurring theme of Scripture is the rule, rebellion, and rescue. I would tell you, if you start reading scripture, you'll see it all over the place. Now, now that you know that that's there, you'll see it time and time again, in the Garden of Eden. God creates Adam and Eve tells him, hey, go out and be fruitful, multiply, subdue the world rule it, I want to partner with you. I want you to be my image-bearers in the world and I want to partner with you to rule the world. What Adam and Eve do they rebel, think they know better think that they've got better ideas that God does. And what does God have to do? He has to come in and rescue them come in and provide a way out, we see it happen again. We see it happen in the flood narrative. Mankind was then intended to rule with God, we rebelled against Him. God had to rescue us rescue Noah and his family. It happens over and over and over again. So as you're reading through the Old Testament, you keep seeing this, you see it in the Garden of Eden, you see it in the flood, you see an exodus narrative, as God frees the nation of Israel from Egyptian slavery, we see it as Israel starts becoming their own nation. And these leaders rise up to lead them called judges we see over and over again, they start to kind of get it right, they start to rule the way they're supposed to. And then they rebel. And then God has to come in and rescue them. Again, it keeps happening. And it keeps happening all the way up until God actually helps the nation establish themselves. They're not ruled by judges anymore. They're ruled by kings. They've become a big boy nation, right? They their kingdom, the kingdom of Israel, but the same thing keeps happening. They're finally at this place. They're finally at the step where you think, okay, here you go, you've got your kingdom, your setup in the land that God told you, you were going to have, all you have to do now is rule with Him. All you have to do is agree about the current situation on the ground and agree with God, that I get this, this is where I, this is where I need to change is where I need to be more like him. This is where I need to be more holy. This is where I need to follow God's way better. That's all we have to do. And they blew it. They blew it. In the middle of this intended rule. They rebelled once again, and this is where the rebellion reached its peak. And what's so frustrating is whenever you look in the Old Testament, you see time and time again, God's trying to accommodate these people. He's trying to help them even in the law, even the law that God gives you see God's accommodation, God will give a law and then he follows it up with and here's what you're supposed to do when you don't follow it. Because I know you won't. I know you're gonna mess it up. I know you're gonna make mistakes, I know you're going to send against me. Even though God has been accommodating and doing all this stuff. We still rebel, the nation of Israel still rebels. And that rebellion reached its peak in the year 586 BC 586 BC, the nation of Israel was completely destroyed by the Babylonian Empire. They came into the city of Jerusalem, destroyed most of the city completely destroyed the temple of God took artifacts from the temple out that the artifacts that were holy, the artifacts that were supposed to be in there to help them worship God. They took those out, took them back to their own pagan temples destroyed the temple, and I want us it's so hard for us to really do it. But try to imagine that moment. This isn't like nowadays, where, you know, someone came in and destroyed our church were like, oh, we'll just go find another church. Just go hop to another one. No,

the temple, the temple, we read in Scripture that the temple was the physical location of God's presence here on Earth, that that's where God dwells. That's, that's where you could come to make sacrifices to atone for sin. That's where you could come to worship in a formal way and it's gone now. Destroyed. God essentially through his prophets were saying because you've continued to rebel against me what I'm going to do, I'm going to remove my presence from you Since you think you can do this on your own since you're obviously rejecting me as your King. Alright, let you have the consequences of that choice. And that's exactly what happened. The nation of Israel was taken over by the Babylonian Empire. And here's the here's what's crazy, even though about 70 years later, the Babylonians now they've been destroyed by an opposing Empire, the Persian Empire, now they're in charge, the Persian Empire, they actually allowed Jews to go back and start rebuilding the temple. And so the temple was rebuilt and about 516 BC, so about 70 years later, the temple was able to be rebuilt. But something was missing. Notably, there king, God, this is what NT right, the author of the book that we're basing this whole series off, this is what he writes about this time period, the whole of what we call the Second Temple period, which is this, the Second Temple that's been built after the Babylonian conquest, the whole of what we call the Second Temple period is characterized by a sense of divine absence, the king is gone, and he has not come back. That's the problem faced by the prophets. The priests are bored, and they slack in their duties, because although the temple has been rebuilt, there is no sense of the of God, their king, having returned, as all the prophets said that he would. And that period of time, from 516 BC, carries all the way forward for hundreds of years, until onto the scene steps a 30-year-old Galilean carpenter. And as soon as he enters the picture, things start to change. Things start to shift. You see things shift when Jesus steps into your situation, don't they? It was anyone with us on ministry partner night MP night, anybody in here anybody online. We heard three stories of people who saw things in their life start to shift. When Jesus walked into life, we had a moment where we had people just come up, just spur the moment testimonies. Anybody who in the crowd wanted to come up just the first three people, we had three incredible people come up, Kendall, Karen, I believe in Don came up and shared incredible stories of how things were going one way, but then Jesus, right, how stuff was hard. Things were difficult. They didn't know how they're gonna see their way through. And then Jesus stepped into their situation. And that changes everything that changes everything. When Jesus steps in when Jesus steps into your situation, things start to shift. I want to tell you if you want your marriage to look different, let Jesus step in that situation. Right? If you want your kids to start looking different your relationship with your kids, let Jesus step into that situation. If you have destructive mindsets, if you self-sabotage, man, let Jesus step in that situation. And I promise you, things will start to shift. It won't be an instant change, but you will notice things are different. And that's exactly what the nation of Israel started to experience as Jesus, this unknown 30-year-old Carpenter, who seems to have no real background or training steps onto the scene, all of a sudden, things start to shift noticeably, the silence that they felt that divine absence that had been in place for about 500 years. It wasn't there anymore. Things were shifting. And not only were they shifting here, here's what's so important. They were shifting in a very familiar way. I'm sure as people who were following Jesus, these Jewish people who knew the Jewish Scriptures, who read the Old Testament, they knew this, they knew the scriptures, I'm sure as Jesus starts his ministry and he starts ministering people are going I swear, I've read this somewhere before,

like this is, this is eerily familiar. This can't just be a coincidence. You see, Jesus steps on the scene, what's one of the first things that he does? Calls 12 disciples, echoing the 12 tribes of Israel that God called out to be pillars for the Jewish community. And here Jesus is calling 12 disciples. Jesus rebukes the elements, he tells the seas to be still, and they are. I'm sure people are going, Man, this is. I mean, this feels like the Red Sea. To me. It feels like the same guy who is able to cross the Red Sea. This guy's now telling the elements and he's controlling them. He's commanding them echoes of the familiar and the Old Testament we see where God through His prophets heals the sick, heals the lepers, heals the lame, and now Jesus comes on the scene and he's doing the exact same thing. The blind are seeing the lame are walking the dead arising. One of the biggest things that Jesus just does Jesus steps on the scene and get this he Institute's new laws. Nobody does that. The greatest prophet up to this point, Moses, didn't give new laws. Moses said, hey, look, I'm the I'm like the mediator. God talked to me. I'm just sharing what he said this one he said to do, in walks Jesus like, no, no, I'm not in the place of Moses, I'm not a mediator of the law. I'm giving a new law. Jesus Institute's this new law, and I'm sure people are going, who's this guy think he is? This is man, this. I mean, I've read this stuff before somewhere. And then not just that, not just is Jesus instituting laws, he has the audacity to say what we sing about earlier that he has the authority to forgive sin. That's something only God can do. Again, not even the priest is able to forgive sin. The priest is the mediator. But here's steps Jesus, and it's so familiar. It's so familiar. And I'm sure all of the people around him are going man, this. This feels like God. The things he's doing the things that he's saying, these are echoes of the God of Israel, the God who promised to come and rescue us one day, but he has been so silent. For so long. Man, who does this guy think he is? brings us back to what we read earlier this morning. Let me read this again. When he came to the village of Nazareth, His boyhood home, this is Luke 416. Jesus went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath, and he stood up to read the Scriptures, the scroll of Isaiah, the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written. And then he reads from Isaiah. Now, this particular piece of scripture is Isaiah 61. You can read it for yourself, if you have a Bible, just go to your Old Testament, look at Isaiah, look for chapter 61. And you'll see what Jesus read about the spirit of the Lord being on him and anointing him to proclaim freedom to set captives free. You'll see this here. And the thing about Isaiah 61, is that prior to Jesus arriving on the scene, what we know from ancient Judaism is that this was a very important piece of scripture. Isaiah 61 was a hopeful piece of scripture that Jews would read during this long period of silence, believing that one day God would come to rescue them, that even though they had rebelled, even though that God wanted to roll with him, they had rebelled, so bad that the temple had been destroyed, and God's presence had seemingly vanished, that he was a faithful God, that he was a rescue in God, and that one day, he would come back to rescue them himself. And then, sure enough, Jesus reads that Scripture. And then in verse 20, he rolls up the scroll, hands it back to the attendant, and sits down. All eyes in the Senate, God looked at him intently. And Jesus began to speak to them saying, the Scripture you've just heard, has been fulfilled this very day. You see, what Jesus was doing was unmistakable. From the start of his ministry, he was letting everybody know. I'm not a carpenter. Not a teacher. I'm not

just a rabbi, I'm not even just a messiah, figure, the Jewish people and had a lot of those guys rise up and try to do something and they were killed. No, no, no, I'm none of those things. I am the anointed one. I am the anointed one. I am the God of Israel come back to rescue his people. I'm the one that you have been waiting for which is kind of a side note to today's sermon. But it's so important. I got to get this in here. Jesus defining himself that way is so crucial. And it's so important for us because what that means is that Jesus is who he says he is not who I say he is, right? Like I don't, I don't get to define him. Last week, we talked about what the kingdom of God is that the kingdom of God is all about self-sacrifice. It's all about giving of ourselves and dying to ourselves, and that can be hard for us. But guess what, we don't get to define the kingdom of God. Like we just don't God gets to define it. Well, in a very similar way, we don't get to define who the king is. He's already done it. He's let us know who he is. Jesus is who he says he is not who I think he is not who I'm comfortable with him being not what I wish he would feel like for him to be. He just is who he is. It's actually it's very similar to so here at Cornerstone. We believe that women are supposed to be involved in ministry, that men and women are supposed to be absolutely supposed to be co-equal partners. And here is what's so vital and so important about this. If you want to come and talk to me about it, what you'll notice is if you say okay, so pastor Jacob, I know, there are some scriptures that seem to say that that shouldn't happen. Why does Cornerstone believe that women should be co-equal partners in ministry, you know, you're not going to hear me say, well, because it's time. It's 2022. I mean, it's the time right? Like, it didn't. You're not gonna hear me say, Well, you know, the way the culture has been going, just you know, we're trying Just trying to go with the times, and this is where culture has been advancing. And so we're here too, you're not gonna hear that you're not gonna hear me say, Well, you know, it just feels right. It just feels like that should be the case, what you're going to hear our point to here at Cornerstone for why women should be able to be involved in ministry is because of what we see God revealing scripture, what we see in church tradition, what we see from our own logical reasoning that God has given us with and through our own Christian experience. That's why we believe that women should be co-equal partners in ministry, not off of feelings, not because it's not time, not because of culture, but because of how it has been defined for us. So this isn't even really a decision on our part. It's what we already see to be the case. Jesus has already stated who he is. We don't get to define him because of the time because of our feelings, or because of the culture, he is who he says he is. I don't get to define the king. I don't get to say who he is. He has already, done that. And I just want to let you know, as kind of put a tie on that's the same with any issue at Cornerstone. Do you ever wonder, hey, they stand here on this issue? I wonder why. That's exactly why scripture, Christian experience, church tradition, logical reasoning. That's why we stand everywhere we stay on, not feelings, not culture, not its time, nothing like that. We allow it to define itself. And the same is true with Jesus, he sets his identity, not us, which all of this makes me think I know, this is far off. But I want you to mark your calendars. Now. The very first sermon series following Easter. So the weekend of April, 23, and 24th. We're starting a brand new series called help. I'm losing my faith, all about deconstruction, all about the stuff that's going around right now, where people are wondering, man, what is faith? Even look like? Who is Jesus? Really? What Does the Bible Really if you have any questions on that kind of stuff, you're gonna want to be here for that. It's a four-week series. So end of an infomercial/ for our next series, but make sure you mark your calendars for that April 23, and 24th. So again, Jesus has set his identity, we don't get to set it, he has made it very clear. And if he wasn't clear enough, in Luke four, I want us to skip ahead to one more scripture, Luke chapter 19, starting in verse 41, this is just before Jesus enters the city of Jerusalem, right before he's heading to the cross his death and resurrection. And as he's entering the city, this is what he says. But as Jesus came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep. How I wish today that you people would understand the way to peace, Jesus is essentially saying, I wish you guys would understand what I've been wanting to do. I want to rule with you. I want to partner with you. This is what I have always longed for, but you keep on rebelling, how I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace, but now it is too late. And peace is hidden from your eyes. Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close you in on every side, echoing exactly what we saw happen in the Babylonian conquest. They will crush you into the ground and your children with you, your enemies will not leave a single stone in place. And here's the key, because you did not recognize it when God visited you.

Jesus, if there was any confusion about who he thought he was, he cleared it up right there. He's saying, Look, you guys have just missed it. You've missed it. You've missed it. In the book of John. He echoes this again, in John chapter five, verse 39. He says You search the Scriptures diligently because you think in them you will find life and you miss the fact that they point to me. It's what he's saying here. He's like, Man, I'm the God you've been waiting for. The God who's here to rescue the God who is here to put the final nail in the coffin of that rule rebellion rescue cycle. I'm here to finalize it once and for all, and you've missed it. So we can't say that Jesus didn't know who he was. I know it's a modern thing for people to say, you know, Jesus thought he was a good teacher. He thought he was just a rabbi or an enlightened thinker. Jesus did not make that claim about himself. He made a far greater claim. He knew who he was. And he knew what he was saying. When he said you didn't recognize at the moment that God visited you. Jesus is verily very, very clearly letting it be known that the God of Israel, that you've been worshipping the Creator God, the God who split the Red Sea, the God who saw you through the promised land. He and I are one. We are one. Jesus was letting people know he was the God of Israel to come to rescue his people. And this is a huge point and as we get ready to close out for today, this is the crucial focus for the day, if Jesus is not just some other god, he's not like the divine mover. He's not a God that just suddenly appears on the scene. We don't really care about the Old Testament because whatever, it's just all Jesus, it's all Jesus is all Jesus. If Jesus is just some god who appeared on the scene, if that's not the case, if he actually is the God of Israel, come to rescue his people. That means a lot. It means a lot. What it means is that Jesus is a rescuing God. It means that he is a faithful God. It means that he's a God who makes this promise. And he sees that through and just as He promised His people, your rebellion has led you to be destroyed and has led you to be taken over, but I am coming back for you. That's what it means when we say that Jesus is the God of Israel, that they are one and the same that they are one with each other, that Jesus is a rescuing God, he is a faithful God, and He is here to rescue them from their rebellion. And here's why that's important for you. If you're wondering, Well, hey, what's in it? For me? This is nice to know who God is. But what does this mean? And how does this apply? To me? What that means is that Israel's rescuing God is our God. And what it means is that Israel's story is our story. It's our story. I mean, these are actual events that really happened. I'm not trying to say that Israel's this symbolic stand-in for us. Now. These are real stories, but we can see ourselves in the people of Israel. We can see the rule rebellion rescue cycle over and over in our own lives. I know we try to act like we're different. I know when we read Genesis, what's the common thing we like to say? Thanks a lot, Adam. And Eve, though man thinks a lot. Look what you did to us. If I would have been in if you would have been in the garden, God wouldn't even get day seven done. Right? He would have been like, all right now day seven, are you eating the fruit already, you're already eating the fruit like, so let's, let's not act like things would be so different. Their story is our story. Like, it's us. We are the people who are meant to rule with God, who was supposed to have him be king in our hearts King in our lives. And we are supposed to share that rule in the world. But we are constantly rebelling. We're constantly fighting back. We constantly think we know a better way. So thank God that Jesus is the God of Israel, and he is a rescuing God because Jesus is how we can shift from rebelling against God to ruling with God. Jesus has that transition. He is that bridge, to shift us from rebelling against God's ruling with God to doing what we were created to do, ruling in the world carrying his rule, every single place we go. That was the intention from the start. That was the intention in the Garden of Eden, and it culminates in Jesus. Now. Last thing I know I'm going a little bit over the last thing. Just want to make sure I get in here. I know some people you may be thinking, Wait, hold up. So Jesus, and the God of the Old Testament, are one and the same. Kind of hard to take that because they seem so wildly different. Like, I read the Old Testament, I'm

like, Whoa, that I read the New Testament like see, why couldn't? Why couldn't Jesus just do all that stuff back then? Like if they're one and the same? How to how does this? How does this work? This is what I would say to that if you're someone who you maybe you started as a Bible reading plan this year, and you read through Genesis and you're like, cool, I get down with this. And then you're an excess, you're like, Well, it's pretty cool, too. Then you got to like Numbers and Deuteronomy, you're gone. Then you got to Leviticus, me like I'm out. I'll read it next year. You know, I'll try this again next year. If you're someone who's done that, I would like to encourage you to start with Jesus. Start with the gospel. Start with John or Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, start with Jesus. And here's why I say that. I heard another pastor I love pastor Greg Boyd. He's used this illustration. It's so so good. Has anyone ever seen the movie The Sixth Sense? Hands up, hands up six cents everybody on line six cents. Such a good movie. I remember my dad just butchered it and ruined it for my sister. She didn't get to see it in theaters. She went to Blockbuster to rent it. Got some young people in the room blockbuster is this place you would go to a get physical copies of movies and you could like take them home and watch them. Some people are confused like Blockbuster, what's a blockbuster? So she came home with the six cents and I'm sorry if I'm ruining this for you. This movies has been out for 20 plus years. So I gave you a head start. She comes home with the movie and my dad sees are walking through it like hey, what do you get? And she's like, Oh, six cents. And he goes oh, you believe he was dead the whole time? And sisters like Dad, I didn't even see this movie. Like I've never seen it before. Just ruined it for right. And she was saying like how the whole movie because she knew that she's like, oh, yeah, I mean, I guess I can see it. But it's crazy. If you've ever seen the sixth sense. It's like one of the greatest twist endings of all time. Whenever you realize Bruce Willis has been a ghost this whole time, he's been dead pretty much this whole movie ever since, like 10 minutes into it, it's just it. It's like, what, how there's no way. Now the craziest thing is not watching it the first time, but it's watching it the second time. Because whenever you watch the sixth sense the first time, as it's ending, you're like, that's not fair. Like they, you know, they may they like cheated in some places. I know, I remember him talking to people I know. I remember him in like, you know, being able to talk to people and interact with people. So they clearly they, you know, they pulled the wool over your eyes, but he really, you know that there's no way and then you watch it back again. And you start realizing no, he, the only person he interacted with was this kid who can see dead people every other person actually isn't talking to him actually isn't interacting with them. And your mind is like, what like this is this is crazy. And what I want to tell you is that in a much greater way, Jesus is the ultimate twist ending in the middle of the biblical narrative. Once Jesus enters the scene, once his ministry comes in, and things start to shift after you read the life of Jesus, I tell you, you go back and you start looking at some of the Old Testament narratives, you start looking at the Garden of Eden, you start looking at the flood, you start looking at the Exodus, and you start realizing everything through the lens of Jesus. And you see how he was there the whole time, it changes, everything changes, everything changes the way that you see scripture. You see Jesus everywhere, and you see you everywhere. You read Adam and Eve and you realize that's me, in my rebellion, rejecting God, and God still intercedes and makes a way for me to live. You read about Israel, fleeing Egypt and coming up to the Red Sea, and you go, that's, that's me. That's me constantly in need of a Savior. And Jesus is the God of Israel, who splits the sea for me giving me a chance and a way out. You read the stories of King David and how he showed so much promise and so much potential and how he almost completely squandered it and lost all of it because of his sin and you're his rebellion. And you realize, that's me. That's me. I'm constantly rebelling, I'm constantly trying to go my own way, thinking I know better. And here is God giving the chance after chance, accommodation after accommodation, meeting me where I'm at with grace and love. In truth. You see him everywhere. And what you'll always notice, but you'll always notice is that he is the god of rescue. Not just then, but he is the god of rescue. Now, whatever situation you find yourself in, he's the God of rescue, he wants to rescue. We just have to be willing. I want to pray with your Let's bow our heads, let's pray together, Father, God,

thank you for being a god of rescue. Thank you for being a god who, despite our rebellion, to rule with you, despite our own desire, and our own inclination to go our own way. You constantly are meeting us where we're at. You're constantly stooping and reaching down to help us and direct you to rescue us and God, in no way did you make that more definitive. And through the ministry, the life, the death, and the resurrection of your Son, Jesus. With His death and His resurrection, the ultimate rescue has been granted. And anyone who calls on his name can experience new life can experience what it's like to have you asking ruling in their hearts, and allowing that to change every situation. They find themselves in. God, I pray for the people today who haven't made that decision yet that they would feel their need for you that they would feel their need for a king to rule and to rescue in their life. And that those of us God who has already made that decision that we would every single moment of every single day let you be king so that your rule would change us and therefore it would change everybody we encounter. God thank you for being so good. Deus, thank you for rescuing us. Thank you for being the incredible incredible, incredible God who was so gracious and so merciful and so loving. We love you so much. Father, we pray all of this in the mighty in the powerful name of Your Son Jesus. Amen.